Sunday Love Project Offers Food, Comfort To Those In Need In Philadelphia
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — An organization that started from a small act of kindness on Christmas day has snowballed into a movement. Margaux Murphy started the Sunday Love Project four years ago on the holiday.
Every week, the Sunday Love Project hosts a weekly brunch at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rittenhouse. A room is transformed into a little pop-up restaurant with linens and fresh flowers on the tables for those in need.
"It feels homey when you walk in. There's a lot of dignity in it. We want people to feel at home," explains Murphy.
The project first began when Murphy accidentally overslept through a volunteer mission somewhere else.
"I just bought a dozen meals from Boston Market, went out in my neighborhood and gave them out to the homeless people that were living nearby," she says.
This was the start for Murphy. She decided that she would go out and serve food to those in need every Sunday. The nonprofit organization now serves 600 meals weekly from multiple locations.
What first began as a mission to feed people has become much larger. Murphy sites the opioid crisis in Kensington as a catalyst for helping people get identification so that they can get into detoxification centers and go to rehab.
"I try to help facilitate some of those things to help people out," she adds.
Murphy decided to leave behind her successful cleaning business to devote her full attention to the Sunday Love Project and the people she was saving.
"I had a guy sit down and start crying because he said he hasn't felt that loved and that comfortable in a place that actually felt like home since he had been on the streets," Murphy recalls. "I go out to dinner with them, I take them out to get them out of the neighborhood. Like once a week, I'll grab a couple guys and just go some place that's not Kensington."
And even though we are giving Murphy three cheers, she sees her efforts as something we all should be doing as human beings.
"This is what we are supposed to be doing. This is what we should be doing as human beings, we're supposed to help each other. There's not one reason people are homeless. At the end of the day, it's not our job to judge them but to help them."
This three cheers is for the Sunday Love Project.
